Weird things had and will always happen, and the area for such things to happen is as broad as the surface of planet earth. and beyond.
Apart from looking for weird stuff out of youtube and unibrow, i stumbled upon an article from soccernet about the austrian people made a petition to pull their national football team out of the upcoming euro 08. people would think they are crazy. and that was what exactly my thought at first. but not until i read further down the article explaining their purpose which read :
"The website of the 'Österreich zeigt Rückgrat' (Austria shows Character) campaign states: 'It cannot be denied: the performance of the Austrian team is an insult to your sense of aesthetics as well as to what you expect from this sport. Their participating in Euro 2008 is to you a contradiction in itself.'
It might sound like a joke, but the organisers of the campaign are quite serious and are genuinely concerned that rather than being a chance to showcase Austrian culture and hospitality to the world, Euro 2008 represents a unique opportunity for painful humiliation on a global scale. "
That part hits straight to the bulls eye! now, when talking about a team with no previous records of qualifying for euros and being among the worlds best in football just below the mighty mozambique (90) and guatemala (89), it somehow strucked me.
A year back, there was a similar continental tournament took place in our shores. The Asia Cup.
The Malaysian football team kit was sterling.
THEY HAD NIKE AS KIT SPONSORS!
Ahhhh... and the black and yellow stripes were the craze back then, though only during the build up to the tournament and never to get past the one month mark after that!
So the kit was grand, the team played even better, justifying their tag as the world's 169th best football team (and can be conveniently found at the last page in the fifa ranking at fifa.com). being battered by continental heavyweights + the non heavyweights. hey, we were even struggling to get past singapore (128), oh i forgot we should struggle coz they are ranked 41 places above us!!!
Anyhow, what strucked me earlier is that, given the similarities between us and austria, at least a few malaysians shouldve been enlighten enough (i wasnt one unfortunately, and neither one of the 20 million) to follow their lead. surprisingly, there werent any. or not surprisingly, no one bothered. i wasn't bothered. well, bar the sport science students.
It was well known and documented about the power our national team possess. goal.com made the team a laughing stock last year. if england's failing to get past the qualifying stage for euro 08 got the team butchered in the media, i wonder why our national team players+coach werent murdered that time. oh i get it, this stupid team doesnt deserve a coverage in our papers. its a waste of trees sacrificed to tell how good they are at giving away posessions and space and letting in goals. ah, i give up.
Malaysian football suck cocks!
oh, and pak lah just showcased his talent in leading the country with oil price hike of almost 100%. brilliant!
